How to Disable/Remove rel=”noopener noreferrer” tag from WordPress?

Have you noticed rel=”noopener noreferrer” tags along with target=”_blank” in WordPress? Are you not receiving/getting affiliate commissions links with rel="noopener noreferrer"? Do you want to disable or remove it completely? Here is a guide to remove rel=”noopener noreferrer” from WordPress.

The noreferrer keyword tells the browser not to collect HTTP referrer information when the link is followed.

Firefox does not support noopener, so you have to use rel=”noopener noreferrer”.

Does rel=”noopener noreferrer” tag is harmful for Affiliate Marketers?

There are few forums, where members are discussing – link with rel=”noopener noreferrer” tags are not getting paid affiliate commissions. Partially this is true.

rel=noreferrer indicates not to pass any referral information to the attached link. Using this tag in a clicked link will not pass HTTP header referrer information. It means affiliate server will not get information like browser, region, os, device and few more if someone clicks on affiliate link with rel=noreferrer tag. Few of the affiliate owners may not pay a commission if they don’t know the actual source of the affiliate sale. And as a result, they may reject to pay you.

The only way is removing rel=”noopener noreferrer” from WordPress.

Step by Step Guide to Remove rel=”noopener noreferrer” from WordPress

Here is a simple method to avoid adding rel=”noopener noreferrer” for hyperlinks with target=”_blank”. You just need to add below code into WordPress Theme’s function.php file.

Note: Take a backup of theme’s function.php file before you make any changes to it.

Now, no any rel=”noopener noreferrer” tag will be added while you set hyperlinks to open in new tab?

But what about existing links? Do you need to remove the code from each and every post manually?

I guess, there is no need to do it manually. There is one trick to get it done in 10-15 minutes.

How to remove rel=”noopener noreferrer” from existing WordPress Pages/Posts?

To delete/remove rel=”noopener noreferrer” from existing WordPress posts, you will require taking help of one WordPress Plugin Better Search Replace.

Search-Replace DoFollow links:

Step #1: Install and Active Better Search Replace WordPress Plugin.

Step #2: Search for rel=”noopener noreferrer”

Step #3: Keep Replace with a blank.

Step #4: Select Table.

Step #5: Uncheck the box Run as a dry run.

Step #6: Hit the Run Search/Replace Button.

Search-Replace NoFollow link:

Step #1: Install and Active Better Search Replace WordPress Plugin.

Step #2: Search for rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer”

Step #3: Keep Replace with a blank.

Step #4: Select Table.

Step #5: Uncheck the box Run as a dry run.

Step #6: Hit the Run Search/Replace Button.

Summery:
WordPress has added rel=”noopener noreferrer” to prevent from Reverse Tabnabbing. However, few of affiliate marketers noticed that affiliate links with rel=noreferrer are not generating affiliate commissions. So, removing rel=”noopener noreferrer” from WordPress can be the better solution.

I hope you guys followed the complete process and removed rel=”noopener noreferrer” from your WordPress website/blog.

Nikhil Makwana is the co-founder of BforBlogging. He is a passionate blogger and turned blogging into a money making ideas for smart passive income. He writes and shares about starting and managing a blog, WordPress, Promotional Tips, Tools and making money online.